Women in Action 1991-1 From Rome to Manila: Strengthening Networking and South-South Dialogues
The word's out that Quezon City, one of the four cities of Metro Manila, is also the country's NGO capital. Non-governmental organizations have converted residences hero into their offices. And with each other for virtual neighbors, networking has become a cinch. Rent is reasonable compared to Makati, the financial district, where lease agreements can run up to tens of thousands of pesos a month.
After closing its office in Rome, Isis International moved to a three-room bungalow with an annex on East Maya Street in Philamlife Homes, a quiet, middle-class subdivision in Quezon City. There most of the 12 women have begun work si nee March long before the furniture arrived. The traditional womanly skill of making do was applied to the hilt — meetings were conducted on banig (native woven mats) laid out on the floor; boxes and upturned pails were used in lieu of absent chairs; human laps served as tables. And the 12 are managing with much grace and humor.
La Rainne Abad-Sarmiento, coordinator for administration and programs, is a University of the Philippines (BA in Philippine Studies and M A in Anthropology) . For the last four years, she was the administrative officer of the Center for Women's Resources in Quezon City. She was also the secretariat coordinator of last year's Sixth International Women and Health Meeting, and she has a report on it in this issue of Women in Action. La Rainne currently chairs the networking committee of Woman Health Philippines and is the secretary-general of Liga Filipina (Filipina League). She is also a member of the women's political party Kaiba and Gabriela, a nationalist coalition of women's organizations.
Marilee Karl is the coordinator for international liaison and resource development, and continues to be based in Rome. Her fields of expertise are development and communication. After completing her M A at Columbia University in N ew York, she did advanced studies in development at the Netherlands Foundation for International Cooperation. She worked with IDOC, an international documentation and communication center for NGOs in Rome, Italy. She was one of the founders of Isis in 1974 and since then has worked continuously with Isis in a coordinating role.
Lucia Pavia Ticzon serves as coordinator for organization development and planning. Since 1987, she has been directer of the Women's Resource and Research Center (WRRC). She is a member of the editorial team of the Committee on Asian Women's Studies in A s i a , chair-board member of the Alternative Economic Enterprises Systems (ALEE, Inc.), and international adviser of the Global Fund for Women. An English literature graduate (cumlaude) of Mary knoll College, Luchie is teaching contemporary literature at her alma mater's English department. She is also undertaking a straight doctoral program for organization and development at the Southeast Asian Interdisciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI).
Belinda U. Calaguas was the program manager of the People's Commission of the Institute of Popular Democracy before she assumed the post of Isis Resource Center and Information Program officer. She said that she sought the position "despite a satisfying job at the Institute." This move follows "the logic of her growing feminist consciousness." Bel, who earned her BA in Journalism from the U P Institute of Mass Communication and has M A units in Women and Development from the U P College of Social Work and Community Development, feels that she can better contribute to the feminist movement if she remains "unidentified with any one politically-affiliated women's group. I believe Isis work will allow me this opportunity."
Elizabetti Reyes-Martinez, Communication and Network Program officer, thinks that joining Isis is "an excellent opportunity to work in a women's organization. In the past, I have always taken an interest in the women's movement and have read books on feminism, but somehow I never got the chance to work directly in a women's group." Eliz has a BA in English from U P Diliman and an M A in English from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and has served as writer, researcher and editor of various corporate and N G O publications. She is fluent in English, Filipino and Spanish.
Making up the core of associates for the different programs of Isis are; Belinda Arcilla; Elvira C. Colobong and Judith T. Catubig; administration, Dominga B. Anosan, health; Cristina Bontuyan, resource center, and Elizabeth Lolarga and Barbara Goldoftas, publications. Arsenia D. Tan is with general services.
Belyn, administrative program associate, is a registered nurse working in the spheres of children, health and human rights. Before joining Isis, she was the administrative officer of the El Taller Foundation in Spain.
She was the national coordinator of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines from 1985 to 1989. After attending human rights courses in Strasbourg, Canada and Geneva, she conceptualized a human rights course for TFDP. This same course contributed to TFDP's garnering the honorable mention award for 1990 from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.
The health networking associate, Doms, has been active for the past decade promoting primary health care in the northern region of the Cordilleras.
She noted that "like the women's movement, primary health care is a worldwide concern which aims to make health services available to all. Yet, despite efforts of governments and private agencies towards this end, the health status of majority of the people in the Third World have remained poor. More so with women.
Also a nursing graduate, she has served as a rural health educator of the Department of Health, a community-based health program worker, training coordinator and program director of the Community Health Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Region.
Cristy, a biology graduate of the UP Los Banos, worked as project officer of MASIPAG (an acronym which in Filipino means "industrious" and standing for a group of farmers and scientists working for agricultural progress). This was a project that sought to develop alternative rice production systems.
Elvie is a certified public accountant who has worked for Genexco Philippines, Inc., Mabuhay Airways and the Rural Bank of San Agustin in Isabela. She can also operate a PABX switchboard, transmit messages through a telex machine and has a working knowledge of computers. Judith worked as a data transcriber for POPCOM, a government agency, for seven years. Before joining Isis, she was with Woman Health Philippines as clerk typist for its two important conferences: the Sixth International Women and Health Meeting and the First National Convention of NGOs for Health.
Babeth has lent her journalistic skills for this issue. She is the associate editor of The Sunday Times Magazine, weekend supplement of The Manila Times, and author of a book of poems. The First Eye.
Barbara, North American, studied botany at the University of Michigan and science journalism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a freelance writer currently based in Manila. She has traveled to El Salvador to look on peace, development and women's efforts, and has won an award for her reportage.
Arse is a BS Commerce graduate, major in Accounting, from the University of Mindanao. She has had a varied working experience as a sales clerk, ticket seller and canteen operator.
The Isis Manila Board of Trustees will be featured in the next issue of Women in Action